Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

25/04/1916

Date of Discharge

23/02/1919

Place of Enlistment

Goulburn NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Aubrey'

Place of Birth

Queanbeyan NSW

Address (at enlistment)

The Farm, Royalla ACT

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Joseph Blewitt (father), The Farm, Royalla ACT

Service Number

2284

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

35 Battalion AIF

Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Aubrey Blewitt came from Royalla and was 21 years old when he enlisted. He served with the 35th Battalion, entering the front line in France in March 1917. He was twice wounded in action - in a gas attack during the Battle of Messines in June 1917 and received a gun shot wound at Bray-sur-Somme in August 1918. He returned to Australia in October 1918 with a "Moveable Kidney R. Tumor" and was discharged in Sydney on 23 February 1919.

In November 1920 he successfully applied for a block of land of 645 acres in Weston Creek but was forced to surrender it five years later. In lieu he was allocated the lease to Block 13 in the District of Stromlo from the beginning of 1926 which he later called 'The Rivers'. He married Evelyn Grady from Tuggeranong in 1921 but she died in 1924 leaving him to care for their young son. In 1925, when he learnt that he was to lose his land in Weston Creek, he described himself as "twice wounded still incapacitated through wounds and only recently returned from Randwick Hospital". Frequent trips to Sydney for treatment would impede his success as a grazier. He married Mary Grady, sister of his first wife, in 1927 and they built a house on 'The Rivers'.

'The Rivers' was north of Mount Stromlo, between Coppins Crossing Road, Uriarra Road and the Molonglo River. In the 1940s part of the block was resumed for pine plantations and in 2013 the development of the Molonglo suburb of Denman Prospect began on the site of 'The Rivers'. Also in 2013 a solar farm was constructed on 'The Farm' at Royalla. Blewitt died on 29 May 1961 and is buried in the Riverside Cemetery at Queanbeyan. He was the brother of Stan Blewitt and the brother-in-law of James and David Grady.

Description - height 5 feet 8½ inches, weight 145 pounds, chest 34-37 inches, dark complexion, brown eyes, brown hair, Catholic.

Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan: from the district to the Australian Capital Territory 1820-1930. Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra Inc., 2001 (p.16)
Queanbeyan Age - 3 April 1917, 10 July 1917, 25 September 1917, 13 September 1918, 14 January 1919
The Canberra Times - 30 May 1961
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
ArchivesACT - TL907 Block 13 (parts 1-3)